Hurricane Katrina wiped out the New Orleans public schools. It also created a rare chance to build a system that might solve the biggest problem in urban education — how to teach disadvantaged children.

August 29, 2007, Wednesday

Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco has approved clemency requests from 183 convicts and former convicts, including dozens of pardons for decades-old drug crimes. The cases include shoplifting, obscenity, arson and second-degree murder. In all the cases,...

Louisiana became the first state to outlaw the late-term procedure it calls partial-birth abortion, when Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco signed legislation allowing doctors to be prosecuted for performing it. The new law allows the procedure in only...